by Diem, J. C.
Leo was sitting alone at the table, gaping at her in shock. Brie’s expression was murderous as she lurched to her feet. Springing out of his chair, he darted forward and grabbed his twin by the shoulders to stop her before she could stab me. Her blue sword blazed in her hand, ready to slice me apart.
Sophia and Nathan were absent. I was glad neither of them were here to see me in this state. It was bad enough the two young angels had witnessed my condition.
Drawn by the ruckus, Sam came thumping down the stairs and burst into the room. “What happened?” he asked and examined me in confusion. “Are you hurt?”
Apart from a few pecks and scratches, I wasn’t physically hurt, but I was about as far from being okay as I’d ever been. Unable to speak without gibbering, I shook my head and walked past him into the kitchen. I took the stairs up to the second floor. The stairwell was dark and narrow and seemed to have doubled in length. I cringed as the walls seemed to close in around me.
Entering the bathroom at the end of the hall, I left the door standing open wide. I stripped off my coat and boots then climbed into the shower still clothed. I couldn’t stand the thought of being enclosed and left the shower curtain open. Turning the water on as hot as I could bear it, I stood beneath the spray with my head bowed and my heart still hammering.
I didn’t hear it when Sam and Leo entered the room. I only knew they’d arrived when they climbed into the shower and wrapped their arms around me. Trembling in the aftermath, I was too overwrought to cry. I let them hold me as they offered me their silent comfort.
A few minutes passed before I heard a knock on the door. I didn’t bother to raise my head, I knew it had to be Sophia. Brie was probably still downstairs, laughing herself into a coma. Nathan wouldn’t have knocked. He’d have walked into the room and wrapped me in his arms just like the two boys had done.
“What happened to her?” Sophia asked. Her tone was concerned and maternal.
“We do not know,” Leo answered as he gently stroked my hair. Even though he was a male version of Brie, I didn’t blame him for his twin’s actions. Their faces might look the same, but their personalities couldn’t have been more different.
Sam was humming something beneath his breath. His chin was resting on my shoulder and his cheek was pressed up against mine. He wasn’t quite as hideous as he had been when he’d first joined us, but he was far from handsome. I’d grown used to the fact that he was an imp and knew that his exterior didn’t match his interior. He had a huge heart and he loved me like a sister. Leo loved me, too, in his own way.
“Whatever it was, Brie had something to do with it,” Sam said darkly.
I heard Sophia sigh even above the water that cascaded over me. She wasn’t surprised that Brie and I had had a falling out. It had been bound to happen sooner or later. “I will take care of her,” she offered. “You two can wait for us downstairs.”
They were reluctant to leave, but they obeyed her anyway. Sam patted me on the back and kissed me on the cheek before leaving. Leo squeezed my hand in reassurance, then he left as well.
Sophia closed the door and turned the water off so we could talk. “Violet, can you please open your eyes?” I did as she asked and her face softened when she saw my tightly controlled panic. “Did Briathos do something to you?”
I hesitated then shook my head. “She wasn’t directly responsible.” My voice was husky from my panicked screams.
Picking something out of my hair, she examined it before dropping it into the drain at my feet. “Do you think you can undress yourself without my help?”
My shock was finally wearing off. The thought of someone stripping me off like I was a child made me shudder. I was far too independent to allow that to happen. “I can manage.”
She politely turned her back while I stripped off my t-shirt, jeans and underwear. I squeezed as much water out of them as I could then handed them to her. Picking my coat up off the floor, she closed the door and left me in peace. Leo must have used his power to dry both himself and Sam off. Neither of them had left watery footprints on the floor.
I still couldn’t bring myself to close the curtain, but I switched the water on again. It took me a while to shower off the bird crap and assorted debris that clung to my hair. When I finally felt clean, my skin was bright pink from the hot water. I shut the shower off and dried myself before anyone could burst inside to check up on me.
Wrapping a towel around my body tightly, I wiped steam off the mirror. Instead of being pink like the rest of my body, my face was far too pale. Fear always seemed to strip me of my color. I hadn’t been that terrified for a very long time. I hoped nothing like that would occur again anytime soon. I’d rather fight one of the Demon Princes in hell bare-handed than to ever face a situation like that again.
₪₪₪
Chapter Three
Dressed only in the damp towel, I combed my hair, but didn’t bother to dry it. The wet strands hung almost to my waist. It hadn’t been trimmed since I’d fled from Denver. I’d get around to it one day, but I had far more important things to worry about at the moment.
Feeling slightly calmer, I left the bathroom and trudged down the hall to my bedroom. Closing the door and enclosing myself in the room wasn’t easy, but I wasn’t going to allow myself to be ruled by my terror. I reminded myself that the bathroom was smaller than the bedroom and some of my fear seeped away.
I dressed in a t-shirt, hoodie and jeans, but left my feet bare. The building was heated well enough that socks were optional. I didn’t want to head downstairs just yet. I felt embarrassed that my friends had witnessed my meltdown. With my mother dead, no one else knew about my greatest fear. It wasn’t something I particularly wanted to talk about.
Searching for a way to delay facing everyone, the flash of red from my ring caught my attention. I stared at the ruby for a few moments. Zach had given it to me as a belated birthday gift. It had been ridiculously expensive, which made me feel even guiltier that I hadn’t yet given him anything for his birthday. He’d left town just before Christmas to spend time with family in another state. When we saw each other next, I’d finally be able to give him a gift in return.
Hearing voices raised loudly downstairs, I knew I couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. I hurried into the hall and took the stairs down to the lower level. My bare feet were soundless and the others didn’t hear me coming. I paused in the kitchen when Nathan spoke.
“We know you had something to do with whatever happened to Violet,” he said in a tone that was bordering on furious. “Tell us what happened to her.”
Brie’s response was as sulky as any real teenager’s would have been. “It was her own fault. She did not listen to me when I was trying to instruct her, so I decided to teach her a lesson.”
“What was this lesson that you thought she needed to learn so badly?” my guardian asked. If I were Brie, I would have taken note of his sudden deceptive calm.
“As usual, she was not paying attention to her surroundings. She must learn that she does not possess the same strength and speed that she has in hell when she is here on Earth. She cannot always rely on us to save her when her life is in peril.”
“That is what you are here for!” Sam said in my defense. “You are supposed to protect her from danger, not to put her in harm’s way!”
“Who are you to lecture me on what I should or should not do, imp?” Her tone had turned as cold as the snow that was settling over the city.
“I am something that you will never be,” he said defiantly. “I am her friend. Unlike you, I will always look out for her wellbeing.”
“The fact that a lowly creature like you calls himself her friend is exactly the problem,” the teen fired back.
“What do you mean?” Leo asked. He sounded like he was striving for patience.
“Violet has no sense of the danger that she puts both herself, and us, in on a daily basis with her sheer ineptitude and the consistently poor choices that she makes.” B
rie took a breath to calm herself before speaking in a more controlled tone. “Choosing to save that wretched creature from the shadowlands is at the top of the list of stupid things that she has done.” I didn’t need to see Sam’s expression to know he would be hurt by that. Brie wasn’t done yet. “She is supposed to be the great and mighty Hellscourge, yet she cannot even tell when a bird is following her.”
“Is that what sparked your need to teach her a lesson?” Nathan asked. “The raven was following her and she did not see it?”
I peered through a crack in the door to see Brie nod. “Yes. I spotted it straight away, of course, but she remained clueless. It followed us for several blocks without her knowing about it. I attempted to make her aware of the fact a few times without directly pointing it out to her.” I wracked my brain, searching for the clues that she’d apparently given me, and came up blank. Either her clues had been far too subtle for me to pick up on them, or she hadn’t given me any hints at all.
“So, because she did not see the raven, you decided to allow it to attack her?” Leo asked for clarification.
She nodded and her face cracked into a smile. “You should have seen it. The raven sent a flock of its friends after her. She ran like a child and hid in the back of a truck like a coward. I could hear her screaming in fear while they threw themselves at the vehicle.”
I shifted slightly until Nathan came into view. His jaw was clenched and his arms were crossed. “She was not screaming in fear because of the birds,” he said tightly.
He knows about my phobia, I realized. It shouldn’t have surprised me. He’d been watching over me for a very long time. It made sense that he’d know more about me than I wanted him to. I pushed the door open and stepped inside before he could say anything else. “Don’t,” I said. “That’s my business. She doesn’t need to know about it.”
Sam rushed over to me and took me by the arm. He helped me over to my seat like I was an invalid. “You look better,” he said brightly. It was an attempt to cheer me up that failed miserably.
“I’m fine,” I said woodenly. Sophia had made tea and I poured myself a cup. My hands were shaking, but I managed not to spill it.
“Your fear is nothing to be ashamed of,” Nathan said gently. “It is only natural after what you went through when you were a child.”
I could see Brie out of the corner of my eye, but I refused to look at her directly. She wore a sneer that she probably wasn’t even aware of. It was a permanent fixture whenever she looked at me by now. She’d promised to try to be less bitchy, but that hadn’t lasted long. “I do not know what happened to cause your fear,” she said, “but you are supposed to be the champion of this world. What use will you be if you allow childish terror to rule your emotions?”
It mirrored the thoughts that I’d had when I was getting dressed and I clutched my cup for warmth. She was right, I wasn’t a champion. I was just a seventeen-year-old girl who had no business trying to save humanity from the horrible fate that awaited it.
“I would like to know what happened to you to cause your fear,” Leo said.
“I think we all would,” Sophia agreed.
Sam nodded vigorously. He sat so close beside me that our arms were touching.
I met Nathan’s dark blue eyes and he nodded in support. I blew out a sigh, knowing that I couldn’t keep it a secret now. They were my allies as well as my friends, except for Brie. She was just an annoyance that I was forced to deal with on a daily basis. They needed to know my weaknesses as well as my strengths. “I’m pretty sure you were there, so you can tell them the story.” I said to Nathan. “I don’t really remember all the details anyway.” That was a lie. I remembered every moment of the first time that he’d saved my life. It was my earliest memory and it was engraved into my mind forever.
“Violet’s mother worked as an aide in a hospital,” he began. “She enrolled Violet in daycare so she would have someone to watch over her during the day.” His gaze went distant as he recalled the event that had impacted on my life forever. “One of the children was a sadistic little monster. He was only four, yet he was already experimenting with torture.”
Sam shifted in his seat and Leo sent me a sympathetic look. They didn’t yet know the horror that I’d endured at that little boy’s hands, but they were about to find out.
“When I sensed that she was in peril, I went to her immediately. I found her locked in a toy chest that was around this size.” He held his hands out to indicate that it had been barely bigger than I’d been at the time. “The little boy was giggling merrily while he held the lid down so she couldn’t get out. I cast a spell to make him fall asleep then rescued Violet. If I had arrived moments later, she would have asphyxiated from a lack of oxygen.”
I only vaguely remembered being led over to the chest by the little boy. He’d used the pretense that there was some kind of toy inside. The sensation of his hands on my back as he’d shoved me into the small space came back to haunt me again. He’d shut the lid, plunging me into darkness. I’d instantly panicked and had pounded my tiny hands and feet against the wood in an effort to get out. I could hear the boy, whose name I couldn’t remember, laughing in glee. I’d quickly used up my strength, as well as the air.
I’d been on the verge of unconsciousness when the lid had opened and a dim face had appeared above me. I’d been too young to appreciate my guardian angel’s beauty at the time, but his face had been mesmerizing. His eyes had been filled with such compassion as he’d picked me up and cradled me against his chest. His wings had wrapped around me for the first time, making me feel safe and cherished.
“How old were you when this happened?” Sam asked. He slid his hand into mine and held on tightly.
I had to clear my throat before I could speak. Memories of the long ago terror had clamped my vocal chords shut. “I was two.”
Leo’s expression reflected his horror and Sophia’s face was wreathed in compassion. “I take it you now suffer from claustrophobia?” she asked.
“Yeah. You could say that.”
All eyes shifted to Brie accusingly. “I did not know,” she said in self-defense.
Her tone was more defiant than apologetic. It was clear to me that learning why I was claustrophobic hadn’t affected her at all. “If you had known, would you have done anything differently?” I asked.
Her hesitation said it all, but she voiced her reasons anyway. “The others coddle you far too much. They treat you as if you are still a child. It is our duty to toughen you up and to ensure that you can face the trials ahead. If this means you will suffer mental as well as physical injuries at times, then so be it.”
“You really don’t care about me at all, do you?” I said in some wonder. I was amazed that she was so brazenly stating that I meant nothing to her.
Her reply was positively icy. “I do not have the luxury of caring about you. It is your task to stop the gates of hell from being broken open and a flood of demons from being unleashed. The only thing I care about is saving the people of this world from annihilation.”
“Well then,” I said. “I guess we all know where you stand.”
She’d set out to teach me one lesson today and instead I’d learned two. From now on, I’d pay more attention and keep a better watch for the raven. The second lesson had been far more important to me. I could no longer depend on Brie to watch my back. I now knew that I would have to keep my eye on her as well. She’d broken my trust with her heartless stunt. I didn’t think I would ever be able to forgive her for her cruelty.
₪₪₪
Chapter Four
With everyone glaring at her, Brie decided it would be best to vacate the premises until we’d all calmed down. She disappeared to an undisclosed location, which raised a question that had been on my mind. “The wards that keep us all trapped here must be fairly sophisticated,” I said.
“What do you mean?” Sam asked.
“Angels and demons can’t teleport themselves out of Manhattan, bu
t they can still zap themselves anywhere within the city.”
Nathan nodded in agreement. “The hellscribes have developed runes that are more powerful than we had realized.”
I had one of the scribes of the underworld squatting inside me. If I’d been in the shadowlands or in hell, I could have spoken to him directly. Since I was currently on Earth, I didn’t have that option. “It makes me wonder what other tricks they have up their sleeves.”
Leo made a suggestion. “The next time you dream about the legion, perhaps you could ask your scribe exactly what his runes can do.”
They’d all taken to calling the demons that were trapped inside me by that nickname. It had started out as a joke, but with each new soul that I ingested, the larger the group became. I had nearly two hundred hell spawn inside me now, and one lone human. I visited Heather from time to time so she would have some company that didn’t remind her of the torment that she’d suffered through.
His suggestion was a good one, but I’d already tried it. “I have asked him,” I said with a shrug. “He’s reluctant to divulge his secrets and I don’t want to force him to tell me.”
Sophia inclined her head in agreement. “You need him on your side in the event that his abilities become necessary again. You do not want him to turn against you and refuse to offer you his knowledge.”
The only reason the legion was willing to assist me at all was because they wanted to survive long enough to be able to escape from me. We were all hoping that I’d find a way to release their souls from captivity. If I died, they’d most likely go down with me, like rats that didn’t have the option of abandoning a sinking ship.